I am moving from Lubbock, Texas to Dallas, Texas this Sunday. I am going to rent a U-Haul trailer and haul everything back to Dallas with my truck. The trailer weighs 1800 lbs empty and I should have it weighed down to about 2400 lbs when loaded. I am not worried about the weight or anything like that.

My question is concerning the engine. I have only pulled my boat and friend's boats before this and not nearly as far. This trip will be a good oppurtunity to get some decent pulling miles put on the engine. The trip is about 350 miles on way. There are 2 routes that I can take to get to Dallas. Both are the about the same distance. Highway 114 has small towns all the way to Dallas, this requires lots of slowing down upon entering the town and speeding up when leaving. There are probably about 10 towns like this. There are also more hills on this route. Speed limit outside of towns is 70.
The other route is a straight shot down Highway 84 to Interstate 20. There is only one town you have to slow down in and there are no hills. Speed limit is 70 all the way to Dallas.

Which route would yall recommend if I want to make the truck work as hard as possible? Is it better to run the engine hard at a constant speed or would the slowing down/speeding up/hill climbing be better?

I know the weight isnt much, but it is what it is. Thanks guys.

 

I honestly don't know if it's going to matter on a 5 hour trip. There are other things that you'll need to factor into the equation.

Headwind, crosswind, or tailwind ?

Time of day ?

Temperature ?

Will you be doing 70, or are you gonna push it a little harder?

You get the idea, however I'd say that the route including the hills is going to work your truck the hardest. Just a guess though.

 

take the scenic route. nothing more boring than slabbing it up an interstate. just my thought.

 

Run it on the Interstate at 70-75 MPH non stop is one of the best things you can do for it. The longer you can go non stop the better it will run. Stop and go is OK for the first 1000 miles after that run them for a long and hard as you can non stop, it's one of the best ways to break in a CTD. Your CTD was made to run all day long hauling and or towing heavy weight and not run around in town all day long.

Just my $0.02 worth

 

I agree with DBLR. Get on the interstate and run it hard.

MikeyB

 

In the latter part of July, I moved my sister from Golden Co. to Calif. with a 6x12 U Haul and the only really hard part was coming over the Rockies.
I kept the EGT gauge around 900-1000 and the truck did great.

Until I glanced in the rearview mirror, I forgot the trailer was even back there.

I agree with the taking the scenic route.

You should have no trouble.

 

At the end of sept. I've gotta haul my wifes car on a trailer to my parents. I'm goin from Ft. Hood Tx to Pineville La, about 7hrs drive. I'll probably make it on 1 tank, or at least I can empty with no problem. Either way, I'm not shuttin it down the whole way,,,, I can't wait. I should have the Outlook Monitor installed by then too.